Walkin’ the dogs

“Any chance I can interest you in walking our dogs together again?”
I would ask that to my aquacise instructor.
“It’s always me and Killian, but it would be more fun if you and Maya were along.”
Last summer that aquacise instructor and I walked our dogs three times in quick succession, and it seemed the third time she was waiting for me.
That went to my head. Friends advised me to be more forward, but it was my fault for taking their advice.
It’s the old boy-girl waazoo, which I’m no good at after 44&1/2 years of happy marriage. It’s like I did everything I could to make our being friends impossible.
There’s also the fact she’s my aquacise instructor. Our being friends is out-of-character.
All she can say is “no.” That would be tragic, since she’s the only dog-person I know.
There’s perhaps another, but I’ve never met her dog.

• I do aquatic balance training in the Canandaigua YMCA’s swimming-pool, two hours per week — plus a third hour on my own.
• “Killian,” is my current dog, a “rescue Irish-setter.” He’s ten, and is my seventh Irish-Setter, an extremely lively dog. A “rescue Irish setter” is usually an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. Or perhaps its owner died. (Killian was a divorce victim.) By getting a rescue-dog I avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Killian was fine. He’s my fifth rescue.
• My aquacise instructor’s dog is a Samoyed named “Maya.”
• My wife died seven years ago.